About Time, Memory and Representation

Time, Memory and Representation (2010-2016) was a research program that gathered 27 scholars from 14 different disciplines, for a joint exploration and development of recent transformations in historical consciousness, and its implications for the human and historical sciences. The program was funded by Riksbankens jubileumsfond (The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Donation). It was organized from Södertörn University, but researchers were recruited from all six major universities in Sweden (Uppsala, Lund, Stockholm, Göteborg, Linköping, and Umeå). Further, an international board of experts contributed to Time, Memory, Representation with expertise in various fields covered by the program.

Between 2010 and 2016 the program organized eight internal two-day symposia, as well as a number of co-organized scholarly events and conferences aimed at a broader academic and public audience, among them Comparative Humanities Conference (27-28 October 2011, Södertörn University), Monument and Memory (Stockholm School of Theology 16-18 June 2013), The Phenomenon of History (University of Copenhagen, 18-19 April 2013), as well as Art of Memory, a research symposium with Bonniers konsthall on 4 September 2013.

The members of the international advisory board Hayden White, Joan Scott, Aleida Assmann, Nick Couldry, Frank Ankersmit, Jeanne Marie Gagnebin de Bons and Walter Mignolo held public lectures at Södertörn University, as well as joint seminars with the group of TMR scholars. The lectures by Joan Scott and Aleida Assmann have also been published in the Södertörn Lectures series. As part of the conferences, artists and writers working on issues of memory and representations of history have been invited discuss with the researchers, among them Esther Shalev-Gertz and Mikael Lundberg, as well as Ola Larsmo and Steve Sem-Sandberg.

The program has produced two joint publications, Rethinking Timeand Historiens hemvist. The latter is divided into three volumes focusing on “The Forms of Historical Time”, “Ethics, Politics, and the Historian’s Responsibility”, and “Media, Memory, Materiality”. Individual publications by the program scholars are available below “Publications”.

The program also hosted a final international conference 10-12 September 2015 in Sigtuna, Sweden, on the topic “The Ethos of History”, including keynote speeches by Aleida Assmann, Berber Bevernage, Achille Mbembe and Joan Scott. The conference program, including paper titles, can be downloaded here (.pdf).

The program's final public conference in Swedish, "Minne, berättande och historikerns ansvar" [Memory, narration and the historian's responsibility], was held in November 2016 at the Swedish History Museum. Watch the three sessions here. In conjunction with the conference a Swedish language booklet summarizing the program's result was presented, authored by Markus Huss, Ulla Manns & Hans Ruin. It is available for download here.

For an English summary of the program's results and the full list of publications click here.

Even though the program officially ended in 2016, this homepage will continue to post news and publications of relevance to the program's field of research.